Spoof video adds to GSA woes

It doesn’t take a mind reader to see that problems aren’t going away for the General Services Administration, thanks to a spoof music video that features an employee singing in jest about excess government spending at a conference where the agency spent close to a million dollars.

The video, circulated by the office of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) Thursday afternoon, features a GSA employee playing the ukulele and singing to the tune of pop song “I Wanna Be a Billionaire,” belting out lyrics about the agency’s lavish spending.

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Dubbed “Federal Worker ‘American Idle,’” the video was featured as a part of a talent contest at the GSA’s four-day Las Vegas conference in the fall of 2010. The agency spent $835,000 on that conference, a revelation that triggered the agency’s administrator, Martha Johnson, to submit her resignation. Expenses for the event, which was attended by 300 employees, included $3,200 for a mind reader and $6,300 for a commemorative coin set.

A full video of the awards ceremony for the competition shows Deputy Commissioner of the Public Building Service David Foley joking about a “party that was held in the commissioner’s suite” the night before as he announces the winner.

“Obama better prepare, when I’m Commissioner. I’d have a road show like [Acting Regional GSA Administrator Jeffrey] Neely, every time you see me rolling on 20s yeah, in my GOV,” the star of the video sings.

He continues, “Spend BA 61 all on fun. ATF can’t touch GS-15 guns! Cause I buy everything your field office can’t afford. Every GS-5 would get a top hat award. Donate my vacation, love to the nation, I’ll never be under OIG investigation.”

“This video is another example of the complete lack of judgment exhibited during the 2010 Western Regions Conference,” GSA spokesman Adam Elkington said in response to the newly released spoof video. “Our agency continues to be appalled by this indefensible behavior, and we are taking every step possible to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.”

Issa, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, seized on the opportunity to condemn the agency.

“It takes a lot of work to spend $3,000 a person and at a time when unemployment was nearly 10 percent, Americans were suffering and GSA was enjoying the good times and doing so with high-ranking political employees,” he said. “This administration knew about this 11 months ago, and they didn’t act until the press got wind of it. This is typically what has been happening in this administration. They are only transparent when they are discovered.”

The White House said this week that President Barack Obama was “outraged” by the GSA’s excessive spending.